


Waiting Around

by Drakey



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 03:28:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1925055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drakey/pseuds/Drakey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cedric waits for Harry, but Harry... Harry never shows up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting Around

**Author's Note:**

> I've noticed over time that shipping doesn't always spring from a desire to see things happen a certain way, but sometimes comes instead from hearing about a ship and then spotting places where it's interesting to imagine it. That's where this comes from.

Cedric Diggory stared at the ceiling. He trailed one bare foot in the water, but by now he knew better than to really hope. Harry Potter. Unpredictable at the best of times, the fourth Triwizard champion had yet to set foot in the prefects' bathroom. Cho was beginning to wonder why Cedric spent so much time away from her, and frankly, Cedric was beginning to question it himself.

At first, it had been a feeling of gratitude. When Harry told him about the dragons... well, he didn't have to do that, after all, and he had done it anyway, and then he had left without letting Cedric really process what he had done.

But gratitude, like a carefully tended plant, will sometimes grow a great deal. He'd wanted to thank Harry, but every time he came close to say something, that girl he was hanging around with would sweep the Gryffindor boy away. Later, it was her and Weasley both, and finding a moment to talk to Harry seemed impossible. 

He'd started to think about it more and more.

Cedric wasn't really sure when he'd started developing a crush on Harry, as opposed to just wanting to thank him.

He sat up and stared across the room at the mermaid in her mosaic. She was winking and flirting in a most un-mermish way. Cedric splashed water at her, and she made an offended noise, diving off her rock into the water. Cedric flopped back, staring at the ceiling once more. There was a lovely pattern of seashell designs in another mosaic up there, which he was really beginning to hate.

Asking out Cho had been... he didn't really know what to call it. It wasn't really a mistake. He certainly did like her. It was just that he was pining after Harry, and there had been some sort of... some sort of panic, a need to have someone who wanted him, who was _dating_ him. He'd spent a lot of time at the Yule Ball just watching Harry.

It wasn't as though he could really hope for a fulfilling relationship with Harry. The other boy was three years his junior, and seemed to save the world every other month, and Cedric was just... Cedric. Even if "just Cedric" was sort of amazing, to some people, he certainly wasn't Harry. 

Cedric splashed the water in the bath with an aggressive kick. 

He really wasn't sure what he'd been hoping for, telling Harry the password to the bathroom. There really was an element of fair play to it, yes, but it was more than that. He hadn't waited in the bathroom every day when Harry seemed most likely to show up for no reason. He wanted to... to help him? To confess his feelings? To get down on his knees in front of Harry, to scream anguished I-love-yous at the top of his lungs until Harry took pity and gave him a kiss?

Cedric slammed a fist against the floor. Harry would probably laugh at any effort he made. Harry had his friends, and he was probably together with some Gryffindor girl, and it was all pointless. 

Cedric wasn't sure, either, what he expected. Even if he did confess his feelings, Harry probably wouldn't return them. He would probably laugh it off, or be freaked out, or worse, be offended. 

He got up. He needed to stop coming into the bathroom to wait for company. A muttered spell pulled the stopper out of the drain, and he walked away. He wouldn't go back again.

Or at least, he told himself he wouldn't.


End file.
